How Do I Look ?

“How Do I Look ?”  Asks Personal Tadka to all of You… Do let her know your views !

I have this tendency to do something drastic in Life when I feel nothing is working out for me, drastic revolves predominantly around Looks – Yeah I’ve cut my hair very short number of times just to feel the difference, colored and streaked them weirdly wherein I did get awkward reactions, changed my wardrobes for the soothing effect. As I was done with changes with my looks so thought of changing MY blog’s LOOKS !

All reactions are welcome, flattering ones will be More Appreciated ;)

P.S.: Everything else except this page is under construction, will update the same as and when I get some time, I’ll keep you all posted with the changes.

Banana Pancake

When Priya declared her Pancake event, I planned to prepare one of our Indian pancakes – Dosas or Chillas. But then I thought when will I get a chance to prepare other varieties -Take a LOOK here. My initial experience with pancakes was when in NJ, me and my roommate used to bring whole lot of instant pancake mix and used to cherish them with loads of maple syrup or honey. We did graduate from the instant mix to preparing the batter at home, but I’ve no idea why I never prepared these American Dosas back home here.
Only if I had this Gossip page then I would have jotted down the recipe, as I had to think Real Hard to recollect the recipe now. But good I tried out this simple pancake recipe, as these will surely appear reappear for my weekdays quick breakfasts.
You Need:

• Flour (Maida): 1 cup
• Milk: 1 cup
• Egg: 1 in number
• Banana: 1/2- mashes and remaining 1/2- sliced
• Butter: 2tbsp
• Sugar: 2-3 tbsp
• Baking Powder: 1/4 tsp
• Salt to taste

You Do:

1. Mix the dry stuffs in BLUE.
2. Add egg and beat it thoroughly with the dry mix, follow with milk and molten butter.
3. Once the batter is ready add mashed banana and blend for lumpier version of batter. I preferred smooth version so used food processor.
4. Spray butter on a heated non-stick pan, Gently spread a scoop of batter for a small pancakes.
5. Cook from both the sides till light brown.

Done !! Serve with Banana slices and any syrup of your taste. We had it with Honey and it tasted yummy !! 
With so many events around the corner, I thought of sending these to other events too…

• Wholesome breakfasts goes to Veggie Platter’s Jihva – Breakfast, originally started by Indira of Mahanadi fame.
• Pallavi’s and Hima’s Sunday snack event hosted by Divya with Healthy snack as the base.

Happy Cooking and Posting !!

Raaga’s Dudhi Curry

The Foodie says that I am a Compulsive Planner – to extend that I plan when to plan for something. So obviously I do plan my weekly menu beforehand if not then atleast a day prior I know what I will cook the next morning. But there are such lousy mornings when I look into my pantry and then give a thought as to - What of those lying stuffs will look good in my lunch box. One such occasion was last day when I saw only couple of veggies – Bottle gourd and Potatoes. On a normal Day I prefer Potato but on not so normal day like yesterday I preferred Dudhi – Lauki.

Early seven in morning I logged on to my laptop and a TO DO icon popped up with upcoming events which I have been missing for some or the other reason. One of the events is hosted by Divya of Dil Se – Tried and Tasted originally started by Zlamushka and this month the apt selection was The Singing Chef. So I just clicked Search – Bottle Gourd. I received about 3-4 lovely recipes but I selected this one – “Bottle Gourd Curry in Milk” as this seemed perfect as TO GO in my Dabbas.

It’s quite easy to prepare as You Do:

• Tempering: Heat Oil – Add Chana Dal + Urad Dal, followed by mustard + cumin seeds and asafetida. After spluttering add Curry Leaves + Split Green chilies.
• Cooking: Add Bottle Gourd pieces + Salt + Turmeric Powder – cook for few minutes. Then add milk, cover and cook till gourd pieces are soft. Then add the roasted sesame seeds powder. Mix and cook for couple of minutes.

It is one of the easiest recipes giving all the required different tastes to the normally bland bottle gourd. I liked the sesame and milk mix taste – quite unusual yet delicious in its own way.

Royal Kurma within one Shitti (whistle)

I have got a vast list of Bookmarks which I have planned to try out sometime or later, so I loved the idea of browsing through my bookmark folder to search for something that used Cooker – Yes you guessed it right this was for Nupur’s Blog Bite event!

So the first one to pop up was Raaji’s Vegetable Kurma – When I was a newbie in this blogging world I used to dribble over some blogs snaps and just hoping I will prepare these dishes soon. Raks Kitchen is one of such a stirring blog for many amateurs like Me.  She not only gives the ingredient list in a table format which is quite easy to grasp but her step wise snaps bestows all. You don’t have to think much as to what next??

Whenever I had mix of all veggies I always planned to prepare this but used to miss on something or other; and thanks to lazy me even this time I forgot “Gram Dal” from the “To Grind” list, and this I realized while posting this, else Me and The Foodie were overwhelmed with this Royal Sabzi and Thanks to Raaji this dish has been honored a position in our most reliable Guest “Carte du jour”.

Using Pressure Cooker just follow the following three major steps;

1. To temper: Add the tempering stuffs Elachi, Clove, Cinnamon, Bay leaf  and Jeera . Once they splutter add Curry Leaves follow by Onion + ginger garlic paste. Once sautéed add tomatoes followed by turmeric powder + red chilli powder + garam masala + salt and the grinded masala mentioned below.
2. To grind: Make a fine paste of Coconut + Fennel + Khus khus + cashew nuts + gram dal – Add to the mix above and fry till it gives out oil.
3. Veggies to be added: Add all the finely chopped mix vegetables that you want – I used cauliflower +carrot +peas + French beans. Add water so that this lightly covers up the veggies. Then Pressure cook till one whistle of medium flame. Once this cools down and if there is excess water then simmer till the vegetables become semi dry.

Done! Garnish with coriander leaves and enjoy with hot rotis or rice!

Kitchen Property :

I had started disclosing my property details with my juicer, so after about a quarter lets show off one of my most versatile appliance – Pressure Cooker. Currently I have couple of them – the smaller one was bought when I used to stay with my cousin roomie and the other one was well deserved Mom’s Gift after marriage – yes most useful Dahej :P

The smaller one is used only for Rice and Dal but the smarter and the bigger one goes off well with Idlis – Dhoklas to huge quantity of meals for guests. Would love to know about your most precious kitchen property :)

Go Green Kababs

There are these typical restaurant style delicacies which we always order but avoid preparing it at home. For me Kababs go in this category. I always thought these require whole lot of hard work and I can never try at home. So when one of my colleague mentioned that she prepared this Moghlai Vegetarian Specialty Hara Bara Kabab for 20 odd guests at her place, I was amused, is it so simple ?

Yeah, she gave me the recipe in a single line --- Mix Palak + Potato + Peas and fry … Done!!

Obviously I had to try something so simple, so here it goes the above single line stretched to few more peculiar lines :P

You Need :

• Spinach Leaves: About One Cup - Blanched
• Potatoes: 2 Medium – Boiled and Mashed
• Green Peas: About One Cup – Parboiled
• Green Chilies: 3 finely chopped
• Ginger: 1 inch - grated
• Black Peppercorns: 4-5 Crushed
• Chaat Masala: 2 tbsp
• Corn flour: If required
• Salt to taste
• Oil to Deep/ shallow Fry

You Do:

1. Finely chop the blanched spinach leaves and mash it with potatoes and peas.
2. Mix the chilies, ginger along with pepper and chaat masala.
3. If this is thick dough type then no need to add corn flour, else add corn flour for binding.
4. Make small tikkis out of the dough.
5. Deep or Shallow fry, till it turns light brown color. 

Quite Simple, isn’t it? And a total crowd pleaser Green!

This Spinach special dish goes to Siri and Divya’s Healing Food event. Happy cooking and posting about it !

Indianised Pazzta with Sautéed Vegetables

Average Indian of my generation are brought up with an attraction of 2 Min treat. Yeah, guessed it right our very own Maggi Noodles! I guess for most of us this must be the first try in kitchen.  From then to lazy dinners today, Maggi has been with us :D 

Infact this Nestle brand also gave loads of other new products for our kitchen; from soups to spices to ketchups to PAZZTAS. So when Jyoti announced her Pasta event, I thought of giving the Maggi Pasta a try.And to go with the Masala Penne Pasta I prepared Sautéed vegetables Italian cum Indian style ;)

The preparation of this Maggi Pasta is very similar to the regular Maggi Noodles. These steps must be by-heart to my generation. For two packs of Maggi Pasta pack we do:

1. Boil  about 3 glasses of water.
2. Add the Penne Pasta along with the Tastemaker – Spice along with the pack.
3. Cover and cook on medium flame till pasta is cooked. About 5 Mins :)

Done !! I added green peas in Step 2, you can add other veggies in accordance with the taste.

Sauted Vegetables :

You Need:

• Sliced Vegetables of your choice : about 2 cups : I used Carrot, Cabbage, French Beans, Capsicum and Cauliflower
• Green chilies: 2
• Virgin Olive Oil or Butter
• Oregano: 3-4 tbsp
• Red Chili Flakes: 3-4 tbsp
• Crushed Black Pepper: 2 tsp
• Grated Cheese
• Salt to taste

You Do:

1. Parboil vegetables like Cauliflower and French beans till they are a bit soft.
2. Heat the oil or butter in the non-stick pan. Add green chilies.
3. Once the splutter add all the veggies. Toss them in the butter.
4. Mix Oregano, chili flakes, pepper along with salt.
5. Cover and cook for couple of minutes.
6. Once the vegetables seem cooked cover it with grated cheese and cover for couple of minutes.

Adjust the spices as per taste. Serve hot along with Pasta. Garlic Bread and Soup also goes well along with this.

Now I’m not sure if this is an authentic combination, but I love to have this Pasta and veggie combo, so this goes to Pari for her The Combo Event. She has surpassed her century in this blogging world and wish her many more of such centuries !

Happy Cooking and Blogging about it !

Repost For Fenugreek Seed

Dear SE,

I wanted to post Kairi chi Uditmethi (Raw Mango in Fenugreek seed and coconut gravy) for your Fenugreek Seeds event, but coundn’t find Kairi – Raw Mango so couldn’t cook and post the same :(  But I really wanted to participate to this event which was originally started by Priya. Till now I’ve always avoided reposting but as you are the host and as I couldn’t post new recipe ; Sending my Alukanda- Arbi Masala : one of my initial posts, the masala has Fenugreek Seeds as its major ingredient, hence the enrty.

Happy Hosting dear !

Luv,

Kanchan